Ch.9

Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.

The Talmud, Mishna. Sanhedrin

I head to the elevator, just as Garrus is entering. He recognizes me, "How was the trial," Garrus asks.

"I don't know its still going on," I say as the elevator descends, "but if I was to bet I'd say he's cleared of charges, due to a lack of evidence." The rest of the ride is quiet, "See you around Detective Vakarian," I say when we reach the bottom.

"Hey," Garrus walks up beside me, "what's your name."

I hold my hand out, "Will Doe," I say. We shake hands.

"See you around," he says.

I head for the nearest Rapid transit station lets see, Wards, aaannnddd Choras Den. A taxi pulls up and ushers me away from the presidium. I notice I'm not alone in it. "Liana," I say, "Where've you been."

"Speaking to, our employer," she says, "he suggests we talk to an agent of the Shadow Broker for information."

She notices our destination, "The trial that bad," she asks she asks with a smirk.

"Yes, but that's not why I'm headed there," I say, "its where my gut pointed me to."

We arrive and the moment we enter Liana raises an eyebrow in my direction. I get hassled by a turian who wants to "See some ID."

"Do I look under age," I say looking him in the eye.

"Wouldn't know all you humans look alike to me," He says, "ID."

Liana steps in front between me and the turian, "here's his ID." She hands him something and he let's me pass by. I walk around towards the krogan bouncer and to my surprise he's talking to Wrex. I start to listen in when Liana grabs my arm, "Will."

"What," I say turning towards her.

"Here's your pay for the Eden Prime mission," Liana says, "he was happy with your initiative." She hands me a credit chit. I check it holy crap, 100,000 credits.

During this exchange Wrex leaves, Liana explains how to use it and I walk up to the krogan bouncer. "I need to speak to Fist," I say.

"Your not going to," the krogan says.

I scan my chit over his, "How about now," I say. Transferring 10,000 into his chit.

"All right," the krogan says, "someone to see you sir."

"What's your business," the krogan asks.

"I need information," I say.

"On what," the krogan asks.

I'm getting aggravated. "I'll tell it to Fist not the muscle."

"Fine go on through," the krogan says after a short pause.

I walk through into Fist's office, "About time," I say.

"What do yo want," Fist says.

"I need information," I say.

"On..." he asks.

"I'm looking for Saren Arterius," I say bluntly. His demeanor changes he becomes a bit more tense. He begins to slip his hands off the table.

He glances at the turrets which were currently retracted. I get what he's gonna do. I leap forward up to his desk and grab him by the collar. I lift him off the ground. Gotta love muscle mods. "Hands where I can see em." I throw him to the opposite wall. I check under the desk, I see a red button. I walk over to Fist who scrambles out of his office.

"Get him," he shouts. Liana gives a me a look, and sighs. The bouncer turns back just in time to get hit with biotics from Liana.

I raise an eyebrow in her direction, "What, you never asked," She says.

I grin as a turian charges in with a swing, I catch his hand crush it, he goes down clutching a broken fist. I kick him in the head. I see a guard pull a gun. "GUN," I shout grabbing the downed turian and flinging him at the guard with a gun. The krogan bouncer charges, if I'm right this should hurt twice as much as it would on a human. I bring my leg up into a very tender area. The krogan's eyes almost pop out of his head as he goes down. I look around to see the other guards drawing guns. I pick up the turians pistol. I dive behind the bar. Bullets tear into the bar. I hear screaming and I see a group lift into the air I fire my pistol at their arms. They all scream in pain and their weapons drop to the floor.

"What are you doing," Liana asks, walking up beside me.

"I don't kill people," I say, "come on we have to catch Fist." I run to the door. I hear a scream followed by a gunshot. I sprint outside I see Wrex standing over what was Fists body I try not to look at it. "Did he say anything," I ask.

"Something about don't kill me, don't kill me I wasn't really listening" Wrex said. Wrex looks over my shoulder, and sees the damage we did to the bar. "Not bad work," Wrex says.

I ignore him and begin heading for where Tali's meeting place with Saren's assassins is at. I take off as fast as I can to the alley. I arrive just in time, I hear and explosion and I rush in maximum speed I don't bother trying to slow down when I arrive, I use the turian as an airbag ramming him into a wall. I see my shields begin to go down. I dive for cover and land beside Tali, "So come here often," I say with a grin. She stops and stares at me, I laugh and jump over the cover and grab one of the two salarians. "Lift off," I shout and toss him into his friend. I take both of their guns. Sub machine guns I grin. I put a bullet in each of their arms. I put the two guns on magnetic holsters at my waist, oh I can't wait for some Dual Wielding action.

"Fist set me up I knew I couldn't trust him," Tali says after the fight ends.

"Are you okay," I ask.

"I know how to look after myself, not that I don't appreciate the help," She says. "Who are you," She asks.

"I'm Will, Will Doe, and I'm looking for information on Saren Arterius," I say.

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life, but not here we need to go somewhere safe," Tali says.

"We should go to the Alliance embassy the ambassador's gonna want to hear this," I say, we start to walk away. "Wait a minute this way first," I say.

"Why," Tali asks.

"My friends are back-," I get interrupted.

"Will why did you just run off- who's this," Liana asks a little flustered.

"I wouldn't mind knowing myself," I say got to keep cover, "but not here back to the human embassy."

We walk back to the embassy. We ride up the elevator and I think how similar this was to my party in Mass Effect. We reach the presidium, "This way," I say to Tali, she stares around at the Presidium.

"They built a lake on a space station I can't imagine the resources needed to maintain it," Tali remarks when she sees it.

We reach the Embassy without any incident. And now a word from my least favorite character in Mass Effect, "Doe what the hell are you doing," he says, "you are currently counted as Alliance personnel, a bar brawl in Choras Den, fire fights, and who's this." He finishes pointing at Tali. "A quarian you better have a good-."

"Would you shut up for once in your parasitical life," I shout, "my friend here has information on Saren."

"Really, maybe you should start at the beginning miss..."

"My names Tali, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," She answers.

I hold my hand up to stop the explanation, "Maybe Shepard's team should be here to hear this," I suggest. Udina contacts Shepard's team and we wait until they arrive. When they walk in I turn to Shepard, "I'm sorry I let Saren get under my skin."

"Its alright," she says then smiles, "it looks like you made up for it."

"If your quite finished," Udina says, "we don't see many quarians here why did you leave the flotilla."

"I was on my pilgrimage," she says, "my right of passage into adult hood."

"Tell us what you found," I say to keep the story moving along.

"During my travels I began hearing reports of geth,"She says, "since the geth drove my people into exile they have never ventured beyond the veil, I was curious." "I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world," She continues, "I waited for one to become separated from its unit." "Then I disabled it and removed its memory core," she finishes.

"I thought the geth fried their memory core when they died," Captain Anderson asks, "some kind of defense mechanism."

"What did you find out," Shepard asks.

"Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio banks," Tali answers. She fiddles around with her omni tool, I need to get one of those. "–Eden prime was a major victory," Sarens voice says through the omni tool, " the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Yes we got that bastard.

"That's Saren's voice," Captain Anderson says, "this proves he was involved in the attack."

"Yes we've got that bigoted bastard now," I shout at the end of the message.

"Wait... there's more Saren wasn't working alone," Tali says, she messes around with her omni tool.

"–Eden prime was a major victory," Saren's voice says through the omni tool, " the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." "And one step closer to the return of the reapers," a woman's voice says. Benezia, I think to myself.

"The council will want to hear this," I say to Udina.

"I know," he says back.

Well off to the center of galactic government to try and expose an evil monster who wants to destroy the universe . . . again.